Autin's berry mustache

Lori's been making some yummy smoothies each morning, with frozen fruit, bananas, yogurt, and flaxseed. As you can see, even Austin thinks they're yummy! That's what you call a berry mustache!

I intended to go to the gym this evening, but it has turned very cold and windy, and I just don't have it in me to go outside. My day started early with another dental appointment. This one wasn't nearly so traumatic. But the dentures that are replacing the two extracted teeth on the lower jaw are really driving me crazy today. I can hardly wait take them out and go to bed.

We've got another busy weekend in Lancaster County coming up, so I'm going to hit the sack early tonight.

Doing fine, more work tomorrow

I really didn't have that much pain from my tooth extractions last night or today.  I have been taking Tylenol regularly, as well as the antibiotic.  Late this afternoon I went back to the dentist to have it checked and he said everything looks good.  I got a look at it myself when he took out the dentures for the first time.  Not a pretty sight.  Now tonight I will take them out myself for the first time, just like an old lady.

Now tomorrow I have to go back for one more procedure - a bridge in my upper jaw where I had gotten a tooth pulled about 20 years ago, leaving a gap all these years.  I hope I don't cry this time!  I'm getting all this work done so quickly, because we have some money in a Flexible Savings Acct with our medical insurance, that we will lose if we don't use it by January 31st.

Austin continues to bring all of us tremendous amounts of joy, along with some challenges.  He can crawl so fast now, and when he hits the floor, the first thing that comes to his mind is to go back the hallway in search of an open door.  He especially hopes to find the bathroom door open, and when we get to it and close it before he gets there, he is a very, very unhappy boy!   Whenever I bring him down to my living room to play, it doesn't take long until he heads for the steps, which he can climb so fast now.   But they are wooden and the floor at the bottom is hard wood, so I stay right behind him.  He does seem to be understanding the words  "no" and "stop", and he doesn't like either one of them at all!!  He loves his music, and it's fun to see him recognize songs that come on when I play his CD's.   

Oh where, oh where, has my bravery gone?

I had an appointment with my new dentist today to get two broken teeth pulled (lower right side) and partial dentures put in their place.  I have promised my friend Tonja, who has great dentist-anxiety, that I would not share any details of my dental work, and I won't.  But I will admit what I was like before they started.  I seriously felt like a lamb going to the slaughter.  

There is no question that somewhere along the line, as I have aged, I have lost my sense of being able to handle anything.  I went into childbirth three times with great eagerness, feeling very sure I could do it.  I even got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled ten days before Anthony was born, because I decided that since it would have to be done anyway, I might as well get it over with before the baby was born.  

But in 1999 I needed a hysterectomy, and I found that I didn't have that "spunk" anymore.  As I lay ready to receive the anesthesia, tears just poured down my face because I was so scared.  I remember thinking that I wished I could be the one performing the surgery instead of having it done to me.  I had heard too many stories of botched surgeries, and I just dreaded being asleep while they did who-knows-what to me. 

And now today.  New dentist (as of this month).  The one who, while doing a filling a few weeks ago, dropped something onto the back of my tongue and said,  "Oops,  Don't swallow, please."   So I already was filled with dread as I arrived.  Then the sweet dental assistant comes by my side and says she has papers she has to go over with me that I need to sign.  Oh. My. Word.  The things on those papers (which I will not write here, for Tonja's sake) sent me over the edge.  The tears started to flow, and I was literally holding in the sobs as she went down over that list.  She felt so bad for me and assured me that these things seldom occur, but that they still need to inform that they could.  I knew that, but I just could not help myself.  The tears just came and came and came.  My heart started pounding so hard I thought I might have a heart attack right there on the chair.  

So everything went fine, not nearly as bad as the dread itself.  I have partial dentures in place which I may not remove until I go back to office tomorrow at five.  So far the pain is not bad, and I am on an antibiotic.  

I know where my teeth went, but I have no idea where my bravery went.  I really, really don't like this part of me.   

From Florida to Wisconsin

Today was Lisa's birthday, and as the day went on my mind often went back to that wonderful day 36 years ago when I became a mother. I'll never forget that sweet moment when I first had her all to myself, and I introduced myself to her. Later today we iChatted with Lisa and Sophie. That was so much fun and really made my day.

Jeremy has been keeping me up to date on the weather in Arcadia, Wisconsin where he is beginning his two weeks of training for his new job with Ashley Furniture. The wind chill is to be minus 2 tonight, and it's been snowing lightly ever since he got there yesterday. This is the view from his hotel window - a far cry from Florida!!

More birthdays!

Five years ago today our beautiful, vivacious, kind-hearted, very funny granddaughter Sophie Grace entered this world.  She was a very special birthday gift for her mommy, our daughter Lisa, who will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow.  Lisa was our first born, the one who made us parents, the only one who got to have us all to herself for almost three years!  We're so proud of her.  

WE LOVE YOU, birthday girls!  Or as I like to call you - George's girls!

One more down

We had one more down today - this time it was Dick.  He didn't feel well when he left for work, but he went anyway, because for the first time all week he had a full day of work lined up.  We have been praying for more work all week, and finally today he had a good 8 hours or more lined up.  But that nasty old stomach bug brought him down and he came home after just a couple of hours at work.  I admit I had tears of frustration - not at him, of course, but at the timing.  He had almost no work yesterday.  Why couldn't he have been sick then?????  

My sympathetic stomach was protesting and I wasn't sure it was safe for me to go for groceries, but I really wanted to get out of the house.  It was so beautiful outside.  Lori and Anthony even bundled Austin up and took him out to his swing on the deck.  

I'm feeling just fine this evening, Dick doesn't seem to have gotten as sick as the others did, and they are pretty well recovered too.  Let's hope we're hitting the end of it.  I'm tired of talking about stomach bugs. 

Not too inspirational

There's not a whole lot happening around this house.  Anthony has been hit really hard with this stomach bug and pretty much slept all day between trips to the bathroom.  Austin still has diarrhea and a resulting diaper rash, so he isn't the happiest camper either.  Lori stayed home and tried to get work done from her computer and phone.  Dick and I haven't been hit by it, praise God, but I certainly don't feel 100%.  

Doesn't reading this post make you feel so much better?  NOT!!  Wish I had something happy and inspirational to say, but that will have to be another time.

The stomach bug is on the MOVE

Well, I spoke too soon.  Today Austin had several diapers in a row filled with liquid that was not pee.  Descriptive enough?  He had taken two very short naps, absolutely refused to eat anything except to drink juice and a few ounces of milk from his bottle.  So I decided to just sit in the rocking chair with him.  He tried to go to sleep, but kept squirming uncomfortably from time to time.  And THEN the flood gates opened, not from the bottom, but the top.  All down over my clothes, the chair, the floor.  I quickly put him in the crib, and as I ran to get something for clean-up, I heard him throwing up more in his crib as he cried and cried.  What to do first?????  

Of course, I've faced that very dilemma many times before in my vast years of motherhood, so once again (with some help from Anthony after he emerged from his long shower) I managed to end up with a clean baby, a clean chair, a clean floor, a clean crib, and FINALLY a clean me. 

Austin seems to be improving after  having some Pedialyte.  His daddy, however, is not faring so well.  He has been worshiping at the porcelain throne this evening.  

So far, only we old folks are holding out.  I'm queasier than ever, but for many years, that's as far as stomach bugs get with me.  I hope!

Different kinds of suffering

We're thankful in this house that Lori is feeling a whole lot better after being hit with a vicious stomach bug on Tuesday.  The rest of us haven't gotten it, thank God.  Except that my sympathetic stomach always feels queasy whenever I hear about someone else's sick stomach!

Anthony had a cyst removed from his back yesterday, so now he's not allowed to lift Austin for several days.  No rough housing for those two!

Jeremy will be leaving on  Sunday for two weeks of training for his new job in Arcadia, Wisconsin.  Now picture this - he lives in Florida where he seldom needs winter clothes and never gets snow.  In fact, he absolutely despises cold weather, which is one of the main reasons he moved to Florida.  I looked at Accuweather's 15-day forecast for Arcadia, Wisconsin, and I'm not sure Jeremy will survive.  They will be having sub-zero temps several nights next week, some days the wind chill will make it feel like sub-zero temps.  Of course there's snow several times.  He'll have a rental car, so he'll have to try to remember how to drive in snow.  And he'd better be able to beg, borrow, or buy a heavy winter coat and gloves and long johns and boots!

Of course the news in Haiti, which I mostly read online, just gets sadder and sadder and sadder.  My heart and prayers are with all the people who are suffering so desperately and the many people who are there to help them.

Our weekend

On Friday evening Dick and I traveled to Reading to pick up Destiny, then went to our Lititz house.  Saturday was a very laid back day with no planned activities.  Dick and Destiny played games while I went shopping for Austin's birthday gift, then they went to visit Dick's parents in the evening while I did Sunday morning prep for church and got the house cleaned up.  When Dick got home he wrapped the gifts.  Destiny would rather have played with them!

When we left the house for church Sunday morning (shortly after 8 AM) we had to have everything packed into the car and the house closed down, because we were leaving for State College immediately after church.

I led worship at church and it was a very, very special service.  There was no question that the presence of the Lord was in that place.  I just love it when He shows up like that. 

We drove to State College in driving rain, but at least it wasn't freezing.  We got here just before friends started arriving for Austin's birthday celebration.  Unfortunately, it was not one of Austin's better days, and he was not at all in the mood for a bunch of noisy people to be hanging out in his territory.  Amazingly Anthony managed to get some great pictures anyway, since his camera is so quick and he can actually get a picture of Austin smiling before his mood changes!

According to Anthony's picture, Austin loved his party hat.

 

But he really hated it, as my camera shows!

 

He acted completely disgusted with his cake, like he couldn't even stand to touch it.  But eventually he tasted the frosting and seemed to enjoy that for a very little bit.

He didn't have much interest in tearing paper off his gifts either, although Anthony's camera must have captured the one moment that he looked like he was into it!!

The funniest moment of the whole celebration was when he sat on top of this toy like he was going to ride it, and he immediately made his "engine sound" with his lips.  Oh how we laughed!

Destiny's gift to him was a little guitar that plays parts of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and London Bridges.

His first guitar lesson from a pro!!

We forgot to take a picture of his cake before parts of it were eaten, but here's the colorful leftovers!  Originally it was the colorful caterpillar that shows up at the beginning of every Baby Einstein video.  

Here's a picture of Destiny before she changed out of her "church clothes".  I thought she looked so pretty.

Today I was here with both Austin and Destiny while everyone else was at work.  Destiny slept in very late, and Austin took long naps, so it was a pretty easy day.  Here are some pictures of them playing on the floor.  He's getting to be a  real "rough houser".  (I think you have to be from Lancaster County to understand that one!)  

But he's pretty good at being affectionate too, hahahaha!

I discovered after lunch that in addition to being very sunny, the temp was up in the forties, so we decided to go for a walk for the first time in WEEKS!  Oh, it felt so wonderful!  Destiny used my cell phone to get these pictures.

These brisk walks are just the ticket for getting him ready for a good nap!

After Lori came home from work, Destiny and I packed up her things and left for Harrisburg to meet her dad.  I was delighted to notice as I drove that it was still not completely dark until nearly 6:00!!!!  That just made me so happy to realize that we're almost a month into the lengthening of days.  

We met Frank at the Unimart in Harrisburg where he works part time.  He took her home to her mom's  house in Reading. Just as I was getting home around 8 PM, he called to tell me that Destiny was back home too.  And I had peace.   

Austin's birthday coming up

We're ready to leave for Lancaster County for the weekend.  However, it will be a bit shorter than usual.  We'll be leaving right from church on Sunday to come back up here for Austin's birthday celebration.  HIS BIRTHDAY!!!!  How many of you remember that amazing day a year ago - watching that website as things progressed?  What a wonderful memory!

Watching Haiti, pics of Austin

I have watched the news from Haiti with weeping.  The enormity of the suffering is just unspeakable.  How I pray that wise people will take charge to coordinate the relief efforts and that many, many people will do the work and the giving that will be necessary for a long time to come.  

I've been forgetting to use my camera this week, so I'm going to post a bunch of cute shots I've taken of Austin with my cell phone.  Oh, I am so in love with this little guy.

 

 

Bad new and good news

I just read about the earthquake in Haiti, and my heart is just broken for those people.  The poorest country in the western hemisphere already, and now this.  I suppose at least it's not cold there.  Small comfort at a time like this. 

In spite of that dire news, I really want to share some very good news.  As many of you know, Jeremy graduated last June from the Art Institute of Tampa with a degree in interior design.  Unfortunately, due to the downturn in our economy, that field of work was not at all open.  In fact, a design firm in Tampa had just laid off a huge amount of people in the months before he graduated.  

So Jeremy continued to work for Barnes and Noble, actually a very good company to work for, but very low pay.  He also took a second job for I 9 Sports, basically a customer service job.  Then a great opportunity came along for a seasonal job with Macy's Furniture Gallery, which he's in the midst of right now and LOVING it.  He travels to Macy's Furniture Galleries in Florida, arranging their sets and displays.  However, it's just for six weeks.

But as of yesterday, there is more good news.  He was hired as an interior designer for Ashley Furniture's corporate office, one of which is just five minutes from his house!   Part of his job will include traveling (even overseas) to help set up and open new Ashley Furniture stores.  Needless to say, he is flying high!!

And of course, I'm really proud of him and happy for him.  And I'm not complaining about the fact that he gets a discount on their furniture, and there's an Ashley Furniture in Altoona!!

Austin learned to snort!

 Okay, this is tooo funny.  Austin has started to snort.  As Anthony said when he posted this video on Facebook, "We did not teach him to do this."  But then again, maybe we did.  He LOVES the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."  And every time I get to the pig verse, I snort, and he thinks it's so funny.  But not nearly as funny as when he does it.


Austin Snorts from Lori & Anthony on Vimeo.

And yes, he does have a booboo on his forehead as a result of pulling a stool down on top of himself.  But he's no worse for the wear.  We just need a kiddygym in this house so he can climb.  This boy needs to CLIMB!

News from Florida, pics from New York

Of course, the big topic of conversation almost everywhere this week has been the cold weather.  I get an almost daily report from Jeremy by phone, and Lisa has been faithfully filling us in via Facebook.  Lisa is an avid landscaper, and unfortunately, she probably lost a lot of plants this week to the frost.  People down there were covering their plants with bed sheets.  Lisa said you could tell a lot about the interior decor of a person's house by the bedsheets they covered their plants with!!  Of course hers were bright, tropical colors.  She said she bought a few tan ones to tone it down a bit!  

My stepmother is spending two weeks in Sarasota, Florida with some friends.  What a cold welcome for her!  Today Jeremy and a friend of his drove down to Sarasota and took her out for lunch - to a Pennsylvania Dutch restaurant!!  He said they drove in sleet today!

As I said, Anthony and Lori took Austin to New York at the beginning of the week to see her parents.  Anthony posted a bunch of pictures on Austin's blog and I stole a few, which I'll post below.  

We are all just having so much fun watching him grow and develop.  For months now he has been getting all over the place, sometimes walking as he hangs onto things, but mostly crawling - the army crawl.  Lately he finally started using his knees more, but he would still use his arms instead of his hands.  Finally today he just started crawling using hands and knees - just like that.  He also is becoming very focused on certain activities, like opening and closing a book over and over again, putting lids on things, etc.   And like I said before, at any time he might start clapping his hands.  And clapping and clapping and clapping!

Austin claps from Lori & Anthony on Vimeo.

Austin and his Grandma Francis.  I think they were singing together!

Austin with his Grandpa Francis.

Austin with Lori's brother.

Got her tamed down

Well, I have tamed my rooster tail, and I'm actually quite pleased with the color and trim job this girl did on my hair the other day.  So all's well that ends well.


I was at the dentist three times this week and I will be there three more times this month.  My poor brittle teeth need lots of help.  Two of my lower molars broke this fall, so they'll have to be pulled and will be replaced with partial dentures.  The other work won't be quite that drastic.    All the people in the dental office know me by name by now.  Wow, my list of friends up here is growing.  There's the pharmacist, the hair dresser, the folks at the dentist.......   And of course, many people from Anthony and Lori's church.


But my best friends up here live right in this house.  They arrived home from their trip to Lori's folks in New York last evening.  Austin is cuter and funnier and more precious than ever.  He's been learning to clap his hands for months, but just this week he really got it down.  At any time he breaks into a hardy clap fest, and the more we laugh the more he claps.  Oh, it's just so cute.


I was hoping to get to the gym regularly now that the holidays are over.  I was there yesterday afternoon.  Then after supper this evening I forced myself to put my workout clothes on, only to discover that they have been closing at 6 these weeks that the students are out of town.  Good grief.  Do they think we adults all left town too???

Yes well, there's always next week.

Going, going, going

On Friday afternoon, after we got home from The Waffle Shop, we got busy packing up.  There was more than normal to pack this time, because of Destiny's week-long visit.  I think we left around 5 or 5:30.  We had loaned the book on CD from the library, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, to listen to during the drive.  The person reading had the most delightful British accent and was wonderfully dramatic, changing her voice for each character.  Destiny sat in the darkness listening quietly almost the entire two-plus hour drive.  

We stopped for groceries and at Blockbuster before we got to our Lititz house.  Guess what movie Destiny wanted?  You guessed it - Alice in Wonderland! 

I got up early Saturday morning to make a huge amount of chili for a family gathering later in the day.  At 9:30 Destiny and I left for the eye doctor for her appointment.  The glasses she got a year ago had broken and she really needs glasses for school.  After the appointment we had to wait a few hours before picking up the glasses, so we shopped for a long time at nearby Ollie's, getting some belated Christmas gifts for her school teacher and her mommy and daddy.   We got pizza for lunch, and then we picked up the glasses.  Oh, was she delighted with them.  She said,  "I think I look like a teenager."  I said,  "Yes, you do, but you don't have to act like one!"

Of course, being Frank's daughter, she had to ham it up for a picture too.

We went home then, each of us needing to shower and get ready for the evening.  Frank picked her up and had her for the evening.  Dick and I took the chili and went to his parents' house for a family gathering.  I forgot my camera, and I was having such a grand time, I even forgot to take pictures with my cell phone.  So you'll just have to take my word for it!

Sunday morning I led worship at church and had a wonderful time talking with many people afterward.  It seems like it takes twice as long for me to make my rounds when I get there only every two weeks!  

Oh!  I forgot to mention that when we woke up Sunday morning our water pipes had frozen!  That never happened in the four-and-a-half years we lived there.  Thank God we were home and could do something about it right away.  Once Dick applied some heat, we soon had running water.  Sunday afternoon he worked on the heat tape and electrical connections.  We are praying there will be no more issues like that while we're away from the house!  

Anyway, after church Dick took me to my sister Mary Ellen's house and dropped me off.  She and my sister Doris and I had our annual Christmas sister meal.  Mary Ellen always decorates her home so beautifully for Christmas and she loves to share the lovely atmosphere.  Of course, our conversation had some very light moments, but many heavy ones this year.  We've been through deep waters this  year, and we also each face major unknowns in the coming year.  

Doris took me home afterward.  I packed up Destiny's things and we took her home to Reading, listening to more of Alice's adventures on the way there.  

This morning Dick and I made our early morning trek back home to State College.  Anthony, Lori, and Austin were packing up for a trip to Long Island to vist her parents.  He fell asleep before they left, so I gladly, gladly held him (and looked at him and kissed him and almost ate him up) while they finished packing the car.  

They'll come back home on Wednesday.  I know his other grandma Jean will be so happy to be with him.  She hasn't seen him since July!

I had a dentist appointment today with a new dentist.  I broke two teeth, one of them a crown, this fall.  Boy, am I in for some major dental work.  I feel like crying already.  Tonja, I promise I won't go into any details when I get the work done!!

Tomorrow I will give the second hairdresser up here a chance at my hair.  If she can't do a better job of trimming the back the way I want it, she's done.  

I can't believe how much I hate having all these new people working on me.  I didn't even start to find a doctor yet.  Again, to all you people who have moved multiple times, I admire you much more than I used to.  I always thought moving to a new area would be a great new adventure.  It is.  But this part of it I do not like at all. 

The Waffle Shop

Today we continued a tradition of the past two years and went to The Waffle Shop. Their corn pancakes are the best.

We're packing up now for a weekend in Lancaster County.

New Year's Eve

We had a fun New Year's Eve.  We woke up to a beautiful coat of new snow.  In the afternoon Lori's co-worker came with her daughter to go sledding.  Here are just a few of the pictures.  Lori and Anthony posted a lot more on their Facebook pages.

This evening we went to the First Night celebration in downtown State College.  As usual, the main attraction is the ice sculptures, although there didn't seem to be as many big ones as the two previous years.  Kettle corn and hot chocolate never tasted so good as it did tonight. Here are some of Anthony's pictures.

Afterward we came home.  Lori, Destiny, and I chilled in front of the TV till the ball dropped in NYC, then talked on the phone to her daddy and mommy and some of our other children.  Anthony and Dick went to the watch night service at church and are helping to make pancakes after midnight.

And now I'm going to bed.

Happy New Year!